Chapter 1: A Stranger's Demand
The fluorescent lights in Hank’s Hardware buzzed like trapped insects. Adele Wheeler stood in the checkout line, feeling the vibration of it in her back teeth. The air was thick with the smell of paint thinner, cut grass from a nearby display of lawnmowers, and something sour underneath it all, maybe the mop they used at night. She kept her eyes fixed on the candy rack. A pack of gum, a Snickers bar, the bright colors blurred by her unshed tears.She was not crying. Crying was for home, for the silent, shuttered rooms where no one could see.
“Mom?”
Henry, eight years old and all bony elbows and direct questions, tugged the sleeve of her cardigan.She looked down. His face was smudged with something, probably from the bin of loose nuts and bolts he’d been fascinated b